Vancouver man is indicted in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme

A Vancouver man has been indicted in federal court in a murder-for-hire scheme in which he allegedly tried to hire a hit man to kill his former girlfriend, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today.

Darryl K. Belk, 42, faces an eight-count indictment alleging that he asked an undercover FBI agent in a clandestine meeting at a Portland hotel to kill the woman while he was in Disneyland from April 19-22, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He offered to pay $8,000.

“Go for the gusto,” he allegedly told the agent. “I want her out. I want her gone.”

The FBI contends in the affidavit that on March 31, Belk contacted an acquaintance who is under federal indictment, asking if he knew anyone who could “send a permanent message to someone.”

The acquaintance relayed this information to his attorney, a federal public defender, and later told the story to an FBI agent.

The FBI set up a sting in Portland in which an undercover agent from the Los Angeles area met with Belk in a Portland hotel, posing as the hit man. The FBI monitored the meeting as Belk told the story of his relationship with the woman.

Belk had been charged with assault in Clark County in connection with a fight he had with the woman. He reportedly claimed she hit him in the face with the back of a hammer and later hit herself with the hammer in an effort to get him in trouble.

In the federal indictment, Belk is accused of the use of interstate commerce to commit a murder-for-hire and interstate domestic violence. He was arrested on April 16 by FBI agents in a Jantzen Beach parking lot. He’s scheduled to be arraigned on April 29.